Australia says won’t stop spying on Indonesia

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says his country will not stop collecting intelligence on Indonesia, raising concerns that diplomatic tensions between the two countries can escalate further.

Abbott made the remarks in an interview with Australia’s Fairfax network on Friday.

Asked whether Australia had agreed to halt spying on Indonesia, Abbott said, “No.”

He also called on Jakarta to work towards becoming Canberra’s trusted partner.

“And they (the Indonesians) certainly haven’t agreed to stop collecting intelligence on Australia,” Abbott said.

“But we are close friends, we are strategic partners and I certainly want Australia to be a trusted partner of Indonesia and I hope Indonesia can be a trusted partner of Australia.”

The documents leaked by American whistleblower Edward Snowden in October showed that Australia’s Defense Signals Directorate (DSD) tracked the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s activities on his personal mobile phone for 15 days in August 2009.

Reports that Canberra spied on the Indonesian president and his wife have sparked anti-Australian rallies in Jakarta and caused the government to suspend its military and intelligence cooperation with Australia.

The relations between the two countries have plummeted to their lowest point since the late 1990s.

The Snowden documents also disclosed that the United States and Australia launched joint spying operations against Indonesia during the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference in Bali.

Moreover, Australia’s overseas diplomatic posts, including the embassy in Jakarta, have also been involved in a vast US-led surveillance network spanning the globe.